We all know Aaron Rogers has made it known he is not just frustrated, but done with the Green Bay Packers. And just last week, we heard a report that his top weapon and close friend, wide receiver Davante Adams, just ended contract extension talks with the Packers, all but guaranteeing he becomes an unrestricted free agent after this season:
From Adams’ perspective, why would he commit to the Packers long-term when it seems highly doubtful Aaron Rodgers will be there long term, and when there’s a chance Rodgers might not even play another game for the Packers again? Davante Adams is committed to his quarterback; he doesn’t want to play with anyone else.
It reminds me of Gronk during his last season in New England. Remember when there were rumors about Belichick trying to trade him to the Lions, and Gronk threatened to retire? The only comment Gronk had was, “Brady’s my quarterback.” I think Rodgers and Adams have the same type of relationship as Brady and Gronk.
The latest sign of their loyalty to one another is this:
They both posted this picture of Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen to Instagram. You’ll remember the story from a few months ago of Rodgers apparently comparing Green Bay GM Brian Gutekunst to former Bulls GM Jerry Krause, who was portrayed as basically the villain of the Last Dance Documentary, irrationally wanting all the credit for the Bulls’ successes of the 1990s to the point of breaking up one of the greatest dynasties in sports history to assuage his own ego. They even based Danny DeVito’s villain character from the original Space Jam on Krause.
Now while people ripped Rodgers for DARING to compare himself to the great Michael Jordan, I think they were missing the point. Rodgers wasn’t saying he was Michael Jordan; he was saying he sympathized with him after watching the documentary. Rodgers feels like he’s dealing with the same type of GM that Jordan and the Bulls had to deal with back in the ’90s.
With this latest “Last Dance” reference from Rodgers, as well as Adams this time, you have a lot of the same Dumb Guys on Twitter saying the same Dumb Things they said about the Krause/Guty comparisons: “Talk to me when you win some Championships, Rodgers!”
But I don’t think this is Rodgers and Adams comparing themselves to Jordan and Pippen. I think this is literally them saying, “This is the last dance for the both of us in Green Bay.” The most obvious interpretation here is that Rodgers and Adams will reluctantly be back in Green Bay for this upcoming season, and then that’s it, they’re gone after that, no matter what. They will try to win a Championship to spite the GM that they despise, like Jordan and Pippen did, as if to say, “You don’t know shit, old man.”
As I’m sure most of us remember, the news that Rodgers wanted out of Green Bay broke just a few hours before the first round of the draft this year. We all expected a trade to come almost immediately–after all, draft picks were expected to be a large part of the trade package.
But no trade happened on Draft Night. Weeks, then months passed with no trade, and here we are in late July and it doesn’t seem like a trade will happen at all. There have been rumors about the Broncos the whole time, but the longer we go with no trade, the longer it seems like there will be no trade. It just feels like the Packers are dug in and trying to call Rodgers’ bluff.
Because most of us don’t expect Rodgers to simply not show up for the season at all, it’s starting to feel like he’ll eventually report to the Packers and play for them the entire season, however reluctantly. It also now seems like Davante Adams is in the exact same position as Rodgers with regard to his feelings about the Packers front office. This is reinforced by the coordinated “Last Dance” Insta Stories.
During his celebrity golf match with Tom Brady, Phil Mickelson and Bryson “Brooksy” DeChambeau, the TNT commentators asked Rodgers, multiple times and almost to the point of annoying him, if he would report to Green Bay before the season started. He had a smile on his face and said, “I don’t know,” and “We’ll see.” But the third time they asked him, he seemed like he was trying to change the subject and said something like, “I’m just trying to ask Brady if he’ll keep playing.”
A lot of people took from this that Rodgers will eventually be back in Green Bay for the season. The logic was that the commentators wouldn’t even be asking him the question if they didn’t have a feeling he would be back, given that it’s a sensitive subject. And then the smile on his face when he cryptically says, “We’ll see.”
The “Last Dance” reference from yesterday now lends more credence to the belief that he’ll be back for this upcoming season. But that’s it–after this season concludes, he’s gone. And so is Davante Adams.
Fade the Public 